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The history of Toronto’s first post office was rescued from obscurity, and its bricks and mortar from the wrecker’s ball, not by a miracle but through the sheer force of human endeavour.  Altered beyond recognition by a succession of owners in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it was a bricked-up structure of unknown provenance, covered in grey cement-based paint, when ravaged by fire in 1978.  Less than three years later it had been declared a National Historic Site and, in December of 1983 – one hundred and fifty years after it first opened – it was inaugurated as a museum and functioning post office once again.  If it is a monument to anything, it is to the dogged perseverance of historians, both professional and amateur, who served as midwives in the rebirth of this historic institution. Since 1873 when it was purchased by the Christian Brothers, this Georgian brick building – originally constructed in 1833 – has been part and parcel of a structural block extending westward to George Street.  The Brothers had purchased the former Bank of Upper Canada on the corner in 1870, and had opened the intervening addition in 1872.  It was they who, in 1876, installed the arched Victorian windows and reconfigured the storeys to correspond with those of their new building next door.  After 1926, at the hands of the United Farmers Cooperative, those same windows were bricked up and floors installed that intersected them.  A mansard roof was added, the interior lined with cork insulation and the walls encircled with ammonia-charged piping.  For the next four and a half decades, Toronto’s first post office was used as an industrial cold-storage facility – a giant refrigerator – for eggs and dairy products.  Abandoned in 1971, the fate of this historic block hung in the balance for the next seven years.  Despite being designated of “architectural and historical importance” under the Ontario Heritage Act in 1975, its demolition seemed a near certainty.  Then on June 30th, 1978, disaster struck.  A serious fire destroyed much of the roof, leaving the buildings open to the elements, exposed wood rotting and metal rusting.  The massive undertaking of its restoration was described by those whose mission it became as “just about the limit of what ordinary people can be expected to do.” A watercolour by Owen Staples, discovered in the Baldwin Room at the Toronto Reference Library, provided the first clue to solving the mystery.  Although painted at a later date, it claimed to depict the “Fourth York Post Office 1833-39.”  The painting is clearly based on the photograph to the left, taken in 1869 when the building was known as Harris House.  A façade with two entrances was common of post offices in the 1830s.  At that time a man’s business and his residence often occupied the same building. This elevation shows the location of original window sills and lintels found on the inside of the bricks.  The blue areas on the drawing correspond to the windows of the old post office as seen in the painting and photograph.  If further proof were needed that this was indeed the old post office, an entire window frame was later discovered encased in the wall.  Once the decision had been made to restore the façade and floor levels back to their 1833 configuration, an obstacle was encountered:  1980 bricks were not the same as 1830 ones.  Ultimately, however, 7,000 hand-made nine-inch bricks were located at a yard in Burlington, Ontario. When the cork lining was removed from the walls and the rot behind it exposed, the entire top floor collapsed, damaging sections of the lower floors. By February of 1980 the debris and modern partitioning had been removed from the interior.  Of the four original fireplaces uncovered, two were eventually restored to working order.  By late spring, the paint was gone from the façade. Chronology 1833    Postmaster James Scott Howard purchases the easterly 60 feet of Town Lot #6, and its full depth of 200 feet, from the Bank of Upper Canada.  His newly constructed post office opens in December. 1834    The town of York incorporates as the city of Toronto on March 6th. 1837    Howard is falsely accused of complicity in the Rebellion and loses his position.  Charles Albert Berczy takes over as Postmaster. 1839    Berczy relocates the post office operations to Front Street west of Yonge.  Howard rents the building to various tenants, including a pair of ballet dancers stranded in Toronto by a Cholera epidemic. 1841    Howard sells the building to hardware merchant Thomas Denne Harris, who resides in it until 1870. 1873    Harris sells the building to the Christian Brothers who embarked on a series of renovations to incorporate it into the school. 1884    The entire De La Salle Institute property is sold to the Roman Catholic School Board, although the Brothers continue to operate it. 1915    Both the Catholic School Board and the Christian Brothers cease using the buildings for educational purposes. 1918    The Imperial War Munitions Board leases the De La Salle Institute buildings for the Royal Air Force Records and Recruiting Office. 1919    The war over, the buildings are rented to one W. C. Cope. 1920    Christie Brown and Co. Ltd., whose bakery was on the south side of Duke Street, purchase the property in July for $60,000.  Their interest is in the rear yard, and the buildings were occupied by numerous commercial and industrial tenants. 1925    Christie Brown sells the property to the United Farmers’ Cooperative Company Ltd.  The former post office gets a mansard roof and is converted to a cold-storage facility for dairy produce. 1956    The Farmers’ Co-op sells the premises and they are leased to various service, commercial and light industry tenants. 1971    The buildings are abandoned. 1975    The block is designated “of Architectural and Historic Importance” under the Ontario Heritage Act. 1978    A serious fire on June 30th inflicts considerable damage, leaving the roof full of gaping holes. 1979    The National Historic Sites and Monuments Board declares the former Bank of Upper Canada building a National Historic Site. 1981    In February, the recently identified “Fourth York Post Office” is declared a National Historic Site.  In August, the block receives the Credit Foncier Award as the best large-scale private-sector restoration in Canada. 1982    The project wins the Heritage Canada National Award of Honour as the best restoration in Canada, including government projects. 1983    The Town of York Historical Society is incorporated in April.  In December, Toronto’s First Post Office reopens for business under its governance.